Loosen up those purse strings, boys. This one may be a wild ride.

https://www.wardscollectibles.com/viewitem.php?item=10010

SRH

I can't even begin to describe how good of an idea I think it is to spend 20-50k on a cardboard box. One of you should definitely buy this. It's a 'can't lose'...uh..."investment."

Also, I DEFINITELY want to party with THIS seller. He's into the good stuff, and he's got an incredible sense of humor.

He makes Hank Williams -- on his worst day -- seem downright sober.

NDG

I can't even begin to count that high? The Cat that appraised it must have been on the same juice?


Serbus,

Raimey
rse

Raimey, I've participated in Ward's Collectibles Auctions for years, and bought a good many boxes of vintage shells. When they appraise an item they are pretty accurate. Seldom do they appraise it too high. This one, as I said, may be a wild ride.

SRH

Do keep us posted and abreast of the hammer value.....



Serbus,

Raimey
rse

Stan waiting to cast your bid? I will back off to give you plenty of room.

One would have to be very well off, a really, really SERIOUS collector or mentally ill to spend that much for a cardboard box that has been "professionally" restored. How does one define a professional restoration of a cardboard box and how does that impact the value?

Although I totally agree, may I redirect your attention to the Beanie Baby craze? Now only if I could predict these phenomena...

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeand...ation-about-the-horrors-of-boom-and-bust

Chantry,
Note, this is not an empty box, it is a full box of shells. Don't misunderstand, this is out of reach for my collection; I am just correcting the record.
Mike

If I was going to drop that kind of money on it, I would want a pair of these first to make sure it is indeed full of shells.

.

Forgive my ignorance. What does NPE mean?

NPE = New Primed Empty

Jon, if I had wanted to bid on this one I wouldn't have started a thread to attract attention to it.

Actually, I'm waiting on an unopened case of them.....

SRH

In the May 2020 Ward's Auction a similar box sold for $20496. I didn't record if it was full, partial or empty.

There are several interesting shotguns in this auction. Problem is I say that about every auction these days. Can not figure out if it is true or just that so many things interest me these days. Been wearing our GunBroker lately so might give them a rest and see about a couple on this auction. So many great guns, so little time and even less money for them all. Stan I know you know how to keep a secret when you are interested in bidding on something.

I don't collect expensive shell boxes, but I love Ward's auction.

Hank Williams Sr. or "Bosephus"? Jr. Believe I read at one time that Bosephus liked Westley Richards drop-locks, and shot quail and dove with a Win M21 16 gauge- not too shabby. RWTF

In that case it is a bargain at today's ammo prices!

This box of shells is up to $22,000 with a little over a day left until auction ends.

Anyone want to hazard a guess where it ends up?

Ward's Auction has rapidly ascended in popularity. However, in 2016 it was still very regional and unknown. Here is an email I sent to then about an historically important gun they auctioned in 2016.....no reply....zero.

Going through old mail a friend said he traveled to view an Reilly SxS pin-fire in Feb 2016. He said the serial number was 10344. Per my chart this gun would have been numbered in mid-1857 and is one of the earliest existing Reilly center-break guns. I'm wonder if by chance you have retain any details on this gun (for historical purposes). Address on the rib? Any photos of the original case that went with it? Many thanks for any help you can give.

I'm in the same boat with my goofy collection of firecracker packs and labels. The big problem there is on eBay where a rarity shows up and goes for an outlandish price. Then if the seller has duplicates a wealthy collector will swoop in and buy everything the seller was going to put in his next offerings. Poof! Gone. Good for buyers as they pick up trading stock, but bad for them as if they try to resell no collectors will pay nearly as much as the original sold for, now knowing that more examples exist. Collecting is still fun though, and we have a fairly long list of "one-offs' that includes the only known examples of some of the 'brands' once on the market.

A key aspect of my staying grounded in a world gone mad is that Ive never lost the sense of what it's like to struggle...to be a "have not." So even after achieving a fairly uncommon success level in life, I'm simply not wired to want to 'acquire' things beyond some point.

It varies, of course, based on what that 'thing' or 'experience' is. But I always know it when I'm there.

Dropping 20k on a beautifully engraved gun, or a painting, or a Tiffany lamp, or even a once in a lifetime experience...those things I get, and have done, and consider part of allowing yourself to enjoy life.

But 20k for a cardboard box is just...

He's been gone a long time, but I can perfectly imagine my father's ice blue eyes glaring at me in astonishment. *lol*

NDG

I have always admired a man more for what he could do than for what he had.

Nonetheless, sometimes it's fun watching other people part with their $$$.

As Lord Kelvin famously said science is physics and the rest is just stamp collecting. Lots of truth there.

Might maybe be a correlation there.


_________________________
I spent half my money on gambling, wild women and alcohol.
The rest I just wasted. W.C. Fields

It gets to the point where you have too much stuff.

We all have the same amount of time each day, for some of us we can get all the stuff we want but we really don’t have time to enjoy it.

I don’t need five houses. I don’t need 10 boats. I don’t need 50 shotguns.

Some people do.

if I had tens of millions of dollars, and wanted to have the rarest and most desired thing to sit on a bookshelf that I probably would forget about a week after I bought it, it would be no hardship to do so.

I prefer that when people reach the point in life where they really have far more than they’ll ever need, that they choose to do good things.

Sometimes on the way there people surround them selves with objects.
Sort of reminds me of a hermit crab, and the way they decorate their shell with stuff as they scurry around on the ocean floor.

Reckon the feller buyin’ h’aint there yet.


___________________________
Seller prolly sure glad for that ol’ hermit crab though.
Figure he’ll give the proceeds to a worthy cause.

Reminds me of Dr. Barnes in Philadelphia.
World’s biggest collector of Renoir paintings.
I have to say, Renoir must’ve got a good deal on green paint when he was selling those things to Dr. Barnes, because there is row after row of them in the museum, and the background in every one is green.

Dr. Barnes had plenty of money, but there must’ve come a time when interest transitioned into obsession.

If you don’t have someone telling you how great you are for what you do, or what you have, having all kinds of stuff goes hollow pretty quick.

The box might contain Geraldo Riviera's empty whiskey bottle.

Spoken from experience?

I have the opposite problem. Let’s me know I must be doing something right.


____________________________
People say I’m no good and crazy as a loon. Charlie Daniels

I’ve seen the purchase of a shotgun destroy a household.
It’s all about circumstances.

Could just as easily be a he-man plastic action figure nib.
Or a Pez dispenser or a Hotwheel.

__________________________
Well, at least it’s not another yacht. Mrs. Hermit Crab

Nope, not a correlation, or a parallel. Too many people are good at too many things they never make any $$$ off of. They don't have to get rich doing something well for me to admire their skill.

They practice these mad skills as an avocation?
Motherhood?


____________________________
I can’t think of anyone with mad skills and doesn’t make $$$’s.